Reclaiming the Public

· Cambridge University Press
Ebook
209
Pages
Ratings and reviews aren’t verified  Learn More

About this ebook

Reclaiming the Public defines and defends the intrinsic value of “the public” that resides in our public institutions and the officials that run them. The book argues that public institutions do not simply act for us but instead speak and act in our name; i.e., they represent us. Representation requires that decisions made by public institutions or officials are consistent with the perspectives of citizens. If the decisions satisfy this requirement, these decisions are attributable to citizens, and citizens can be held responsible for them. This theory of political authority accounts for major features of our legal system, such as the non-instrumental grounds for the separation of law-making powers, the non-instrumental value of constitutions, the limits of privatization, the nature and value of public property, and the impermissibility of using artificial intelligence in setting certain policies and making certain decisions.

About the author

Avihay Dorfman is a law professor at Tel Aviv University. His studies elaborate the non-contingent implications of the law for the possibility of establishing forms of valuable interactions between, and among, persons. Dorfman is the co-author of Relational Justice: A Theory of Private Law (2024).

Alon Harel holds the Mizock Chair at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Harel has written extensively on political, legal and constitutional theory. In his recent work, he has shown that legal institutions and procedures have intrinsic rather than instrumental value. He is the author of Why Law Matters (2014).

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.